One of the consequences of the changes that have been taking place in family form in recent decades is that non-resident fathers are now very prevalent. As many as one man in seven between the ages of 16 and 65 is a non-resident father and many others will have experienced living apart from their children. Media and political discourse depict non-resident fathers as feckless ‘Deadbeat Dads’, but Absent Fathers? paints a pervasive picture of men still struggling to be fathers of non-resident children.

Absent Fathers? is based on a national survey of over 600 non-resident fathers in Britain as well as two in-depth studies using qualitative interviews. It explores how men become non-resident fathers and how they feel about it. It then describes their present circumstances and those of their children, and their employment, income and housing circumstances.

More fathers than expected want to have contact and fulfil their parental obligations, social, emotional and financial, but one is unsatisfactory without the others. Absent Fathers? suggests that policy makers seeking to enforce financial obligations need to recognise this and the emotional and moral turmoil that follows family separations, cohabitation breakdown or non-marital births.

Jonathan Bradshaw is Professor of Social Policy; Christine Skinner is a Research Student; Julie Williams is a Research Fellow and they are all at the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York. The late Carol Stimson was a Research Fellow, also at the University of York.